On UAE National Day, We Honor Dubai's Eye-Popping Milestones

Today marks exactly 40 years since the leaders of various nomadic tribes assembled at Dubai’s Union House to sign the constitution that would give rise to the United Arab Emirates. As someone who used to live in the UAE, I’d like to celebrate five milestones that make me hope this place never grows up.

From looking at its twin manias for sports cars and ever-more priapic buildings (plus its fondness for startling new feats of cosmetic surgery), you could argue that Dubai—the flagship city of the United Arab Emirates—has been behaving like someone on the verge of a mid-life crisis for quite some time. Appropriately, today marks exactly 40 years since the leaders of various nomadic tribes assembled at Dubai’s Union House to sign the constitution that would give rise to the United Arab Emirates. As someone who used to live in the UAE, I’d like to celebrate five milestones that make me hope this place never grows up.

With its gold-plated walls and perma-blinged opulence, this shrine to excess, built and owned by the Abu Dhabi government, has played host to both the world’s most expensive Christmas tree (December 2010). And Bill Clinton.

Courtesy Emirates Palace Hotel

The largest shopping mall in the word by total area includes, an aquarium, an ice-skating rink, an observation deck, and cinema suites that feature reclining seats and your own personal butler. Incidentally, he may decline requests to sing the theme tunes.

Courtesy Dubai Mall

The plastic jewel in the crown of Dubai’s incredible manmade archipelago (Palm Jumeirah), the Atlantis hotel sits on its own private island, with a 42-acre water park and a huge aquarium housing 65,000 marine animals. When it opened, it included a live shark as a design element. Until government decreed she be set free in 2008.

Clive Brunskill/Getty

Regardless of how sports savvy you are, when it’s 40 degrees Celsius outside, 22,500 square meters of indoor recreational refrigerator just makes sense, okay? See you on the slopes.

Kaveh Kazemi/Getty

So long as you have a driving license, you can drive real Formula One cars here after a 20-minute safety briefing. Yay!